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More News Links Olympic - Team GBR dominate the Miami World Cup . . . News - Ainslie and the possible Olympic ban . . . Olympic - Goodison and Dempsey add more Gold for Team GBR in Miami . . . Olympic - Gold for Macgregor, Lush, Macgregor at Miami OCR . . . Olympic - Double Silver for Team GBR at World Cup . . . Olympic - Team GBR going for gold at Miami medal race day . . . Volvo - Sanya in fight-back after shocking 24 hours . . . Olympic - GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . Olympic - Team Macgregor battle into semi-final at Miami . . . Americas Cup - AC45 to get 4 meter wingsail extension . . . News - Manager for Olympic sailing Live Site appointed . . . Olympic - Team GBR weaknesses show at Miami . . . News - Hannah Snellgrove receives Marlow Ropes Award . . . Olympic - Team GBR stack up the points at Miami . . . News - Dutch teenager Laura Dekker completes solo circumnavigation . . . Volvo - 1,000 nautical mile port tack drag race . . . Catamaran - Can Tornado return to Olympics? . . . Offshore - Frantic finish at Quantum Key West 2012 . . . News - Coroner records narrative verdict in Sunsail drowning . . . Olympic - The Pressure of Success . . . Team GBR dominate the Miami World Cup . . . Despite fielding a reduced team, Skandia Team GBR dominated the medals at the US Sailing's Rolex Miami OCR last week. Without competing in three events - Star, 49er and women's RSX - and their top team withdrawing in the men's 470, the British Olympic squad took medals in six of the events, three gold, four silver and a bronze. Although not all is well in the build up, highlighted by the withdraw of Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell from the 470 event after posting a string of poor results. Manager Stephen Park will be pleased with Lucy MacGregor's match race crew and with Paul Goodison getting back into winning mode, even without the presence of Laser world champion Tom Slingsby. The 49er and women's Radial spots have still to be filled, with no one showing a decisive performance, and in the Paralympic 2.4mR class, Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe continue to swap places in the selection battle. And hanging over everything is the decision over the Ben Ainslie affair. But with such a strong team performance other managers would love to have Parks' problems. - GN Ainslie and the possible Olympic ban . . . If Ben Ainslie needed any greater motivation in his quest to strike gold at his home Olympics, then the television camera crew who cost him a world championship in Perth before Christmas may just have provided it. In an interview with Ian Stafford in the Daily Mail, the man who has been Olympic champion three times and is widely regarded as the best sailor in the world admits that he is still furious at the incident which, even now, could cost him his place at the Olympic regatta. Ainslie, 35 on Saturday, will not discover whether he is to be robbed of the chance to go for his fourth Olympic gold on the water at Weymouth until a Royal Yacht Association inquiry to be held by the end of next month rules on the incident in Australia, when Ainslie swam from his Finn to board a TV camera boat and remonstrate with the crew because he believed they had impeded him. The RYA have the power to ban Ainslie from the Olympics, although a reprimand and fine are thought more likely. Even so, Ainslie admits to harbouring fears over the outcome. He said: 'I hope everyone will consider what I've done in sailing, that I apologised and that a probable world title was taken away from me. But until the matter is officially closed it's always a worry. 'What happened with that TV crew had happened all year, and at Perth it became the worst situation I'd ever known in sailing. It tipped me over the edge. I just lost it. The alarm bells rang the moment I stepped on to their boat. A voice in my head said: "What the hell are you doing? You shouldn't be on this boat." That's why I was on and off in just a few seconds. JP Morgan Asset Management is the title sponsor of Ben Ainslie's Olympic campaign. Goodison and Dempsey add more Gold for Team GBR in Miami . . . Paul Goodison in the Laser and Nick Dempsey in RSX both added Gold for Team GBR in Miami Saturday. For Goodison finishing second in the Medal race was enough to clinch the gold. Bruno Fontes of Brazil took the Silver and David Wright of Canada the Bronze. Dempsey added a win in the medal race to complete a cleen-sweep and Elliott Carney followed him home to take the silver.  Adding to the mounting medal haul it was a silver for Hannah Mills and Saskie Clark, plus a bronze for Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth in the women's 470. Team GBR finish the 2nd World Cup regatta with an eight medal total: 3 gold, 4 silver and a bronze, from a depleted squad - that should put a smile on manager Steve Parks' face. Britain's Ali Young and Charlotte Dobson finished just outside the podium places in the women's Radial event, 4th & 5th overall. Gold went to Lijia Xu of China with Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands taking silver and Evi Van Acker of Belgium the bronze. In the men's 470, Gold went to Australia's Matt Belcher and Malcolm Page who were one point ahead of Sven and Kalle Coster of the Netherlands, and bronze to Panagoitis Kampouridis and Efstathios Papadopoulos of Greece. Britain's Ben Saxton and Richrd Mason finished ninth. Earlier in the morning, Britain's match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor won the women's match race title. The Skandia Team GBR crew beat Australia’s Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty by 3 races to 1. Sally Barkow of the USA has won the bronze medal with a 2-0 victory in the Petit Finals over Silja Lehtinen of Finland. - GN Other Final day Positions at Rolex Miami OCR Finn - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1. Gold USA 4 Railey, Zach 15.00 2. Silver DEN 2 Hogh Christensen, Jonas 33.00 3. Bronze CAN 5 Douglas, Greg 45.00 49er - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1 Gold AUT 84 Delle Karth, Nico Luca Marc / Resch, Nikolaus 42.00 2 Silver USA 9 Storck, Erik / Moore, Trevor 59.00 3 Bronze FIN 280 Lehtinen, Laur i/ Bask, Kalle 79.00 Star - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1 Gold BRA 8456 Scheidt, Rober / Prada, Bruno 37.00 2 Silver FRA 8237 Rohart, Xavier / Ponsot, Pierre Alexis 48.00 3 Bronze NOR 8317 Melleby, Eivind / Pedersen, Petter Moerland 50.00 RSX Women - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1 Gold MEX 5 Vega De Lille, Demita 16.00 2 Silver USA 3 Hall, Farrah 37.00 3 Bronze CAN 5 Vallee, Dominique 40.00 Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org/index.php/results/ Gold for Macgregor, Lush, Macgregor at Miami OCR . . . Britain's match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor won the women's match race title at Rolex Miami OCR on Saturday. The Skandia Team GBR crew beat Australia’s Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty by 3 races to 1. Sally Barkow of the USA has won the bronze medal with a 2-0 victory in the Petit Finals over Silja Lehtinen of Finland. 
Double Silver for Team GBR at World Cup . . . Skandia Team GBR’s world title-winning SKUD duo of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell and the Sonar team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas ensured they continued their medal-winning ways in 2012. Both taking Silver on the final day of racing for the Paralympic classes in Miami.  Rickham and Birrell missed out on gold at this Rolex Miami OCR by just one point to the Australian duo of Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch. The bronze went to the USA’s Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou who also made the USA’s Paralympic team. Rickham and Birrell were tied on points at the top of the leaderboard with Fitzgibbon and Tesch, a win for the Aussie pair in the final race clinching them the gold.  In the Sonar, Robertson, Stodel and Thomas finished five points behind the Dutch trio of Udo Hessels, Marcel van de Veen and Mischa Rossen. Taking the bronze was Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen of Norway. “We’re pretty chuffed with this week’s performance,” said Robertson. “We set ourselves goals every day to try and put ourselves under a bit of pressure and I think we achieved the goals every day and just missed out on gold by a few points so it’s been good progress."  Team GBR’s Megan Pascoe narrowly missed out on the bronze finishing fourth, and Helena Lucas improved to finish fifth, keeping alive her battlefor the Paralympic berth. France’s Damien Seguin, finished 3-1 Friday to post 17 points overall and win a gold medal that he can now hang next to his Paralympic Gold from Athens and his Silver from Qingdao. Seguin’s performance increased his lead over Canada’s Silver Medalist Paul Tingley to a staggering 25 points–quite an accomplishment in a fleet of 25 boats. The Netherlands' Barend Kol snatched bronze with a 4-4 today for 48 points, displacing Britain’s Pascoe. Team GBR going for gold at Miami medal race day . . . Saturday is Medal race day at the Rolex Miami OCR – the second leg of the World Cup series. With gold in the men's RS:X windsurfing event almost assured for Nick Dempsey, after a near-flawless week in which he counts only race wins on his scorecard. Skandia Team GBR sailors are also in medal contention in the Laser and women's 470 events. Dempsey, the only sailor here with a perfect score, has amassed an 18-point lead going into the 10-boat double points-scoring finale on Saturday. The only sailor here with a perfect score. Team GBR teammate Elliot Carney and the third and fourth-placed Argentinian and Norwegian sailors are the only ones who can theoretically beat him.  Gold in the Laser class will be a straight duel between Olympic Champion Paul Goodison, and the Brazilian Bruno Fontes who are both tied on points going into the final day and with clear air between them and the third-placed David Wright of Canada. Fontes won both races Friday and added the victories to three others in his ten-race series. Goodison’s 2-3 was good enough to keep him equal on points, so look for a match race situation in the final race. In the 470 women’s event, the Dutch series leaders Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout have a 12 point cushion for the gold. Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark thus have an outside chance of the gold but are most likely to be looking to defend their silver position. They are one of three teams who could win silver Saturday. Development squad sailors Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth have also made the 10-boat medal race cut in sixth overall, while in the 470 men’s event Ben Saxton and Richard Mason go into the final race in ninth. Olympic 470 representatives Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell pulled out of the event early. In the Laser Radial class, the podium spots are out of reach for Britain’s sailors, but Alison Young and Charlotte Dobson will head into the medal race in fourth and fifth respectively. Young had the best day of the fleet on Friday with two third places. Related Articles - GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . Team GBR weaknesses show at Miami . . . The Pressure of Success . . . Is the pressure beginning to take its toll? Sanya in fight-back after shocking 24 hours . . . Telefonica and Camper continue to vie for leadership of Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race, with Puma and Groupama five miles back but still a force, and Abu Dahbi, 20 miles adrift trying to keep with the pace setters, while Sanya having been dropped by 60 miles tries desperately to get back into the race. After hitting the front yesterday, Iker Martínez’s Team Telefonica rounded Pulau We island narrowly ahead to lead the fleet into one of the world's busiest and most hazardous shipping routes. Telefónica and Camper traded tacks constantly on the 25 nautical mile section against the wind to Pulau We, all the time stalked by Puma just a few miles behind. Biggest loser has been the race’s first sole Chinese entry who fell foul of a series of squalls that left them becalmed on several occasions while their rivals continued to punch towards the Malacca Strait. Now fighting-back they are 50 miles off the leader. Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson: “We have had a shocking 24 hours from a racing standpoint,” Sanderson explained. “We got raked over by a series of black clouds; one in particular saw us lose more then 20 miles to the fleet. A cloud travelled upwind against the trades and grabbed us, parked us up for a while and then had us sailing downwind for as long as two hours while we tried to make the most of it." “When back in the breeze finally we got nailed twice by some more normal far smaller clouds, one a loss of six miles and one of five. So that’s been our day.” Despite the distance between Sanya and the frontrunners almost doubling from just over 30nm to 60nm at the 13:00 UTC position report, Sanderson said his crew could stage a comeback with clever sailing through the Malacca Strait, the narrow body of water between Malaysia and Sumatra that is notoriously difficult to navigate. GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . After Thursday’s racing, Olympic 470 representatives Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell have opted to take no further part in the regatta.  Patience and Bithell, who finished second at the ISAF Worlds in December and were then immediatly selected as Team GB representertives for the 2012 Games, have been struggling to find their form (placing 12, 13, 10, [15] 8, 12, 11, 8) at the Miami world cup regatta and have now withdrawn from the series. The RYA announced that: Instead of persisting with the regatta, the pair have chosen to focus their attentions for the remainder of the week on continuing their campaign planning and preparation with the team specialists towards their medal-winning ambitions at the Games in Weymouth this summer. After Thursday's racing Patience and Bithell were 14th overall in the small 470 fleet, only making it into single figures in two of the eight races they sailed. The other GBR 470 crew at Miami, Ben Saxton and Richard Mason are in tenth overall. - GN Related Article - The Pressure of Success . . . Is the pressure beginning to take its toll? Team Macgregor battle into semi-final at Miami . . . Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor earned a hard-fought berth in the semi-finals of the Women’s Match Racing event at the Miami World Cup on Thursday.  The Skandia Team GBR trio came through their three pivotal remaining round-robin matches to earn their place in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Miami OCR, and a re-match against the American trio to whom they lost 0-4 in the Perth Worlds final last month. They then avenged their World Championship final loss to USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe in the process. The Skandia Team GBR trio came through their three pivotal remaining round-robin matches to earn their place in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Miami OCR, and a re-match against the American trio to whom they lost 0-4 in the Perth Worlds final last month. In spite of some great starts, the British 2012-bound crew found themselves trailing their perennial rivals 0-2 in the best-of-five quarter-final bout, but dug deep to win the next three matches and set up a semi-final meeting with Finland’s Silja Lehtinen on Friday. “We had a lot on today – our group were very tied in the round robin and we won all three of our matches but in fact we had to,” Lush explained. “After winning three matches that made us first overall from our group, but if we’d had lost that final match we’d have not even made it through. Lush was delighted with their impressive quarter-final comeback over the American trio, who have yet to be selected for the 2012 Games and who the Skandia Team GBR crew didn’t manage to get the better of in the knockout stages of regattas during the 2011 season. “We didn’t start out with a brilliant regatta, we haven’t been winning everything straight out and we’ve also made a lot of mistakes but it’s been good to learn from and it’s really nice to get through the quarter-finals,” the 31-year-old continued. “It is always a massive sigh of relief because it’s such a big cut and everyone racing in the quarters is good – Anna Tunnicliffe’s the World Champion and we meet her in the quarters. It’s a really tough stage and a relief to get through it. Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org AC45 to get 4 meter wingsail extension . . . The AC45 is about to get a 4 meter tall extension to the wingsail that will add over 8 square meters of surface area to the wing. The bigger wing will promote more exciting racing in light conditions. The wingsail extensions will be added, as directed by Regatta Director Iain Murray, for light wind venues to add more power to the boats when we're racing in lower wind ranges.  The new extensions are being produced at a nondescript warehouse on Auckland's North Shore by Glyn Davies, the build manager for ACRM, who has been in Auckland since the beginning of December, overseeing the wing extension project. "We're currently building 12 wing extensions to have ready for the teams for the first World Series event in Naples (in April). We're on a very tight schedule," he says. "We came back to Auckland from the last event in San Diego, set up the factory and started work in December. We're fortunate to have been able to hire a 'dream team' of boat builders here and have been able to get into production very quickly." The first extensions will be tested on the waters off Auckland by Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa early next month. Among the challenges has been accommodating the media transmission equipment that is located in the top of the main element of the existing wing. The on-the-water tests will be critical to ensure the media equipment still works under the extension. "The plan is to have the lion's share of the work done before we get to Naples so everyone is able to get sailing using these extensions as quickly as possible," Davies says. Any modifications that become necessary as a result of the tests will be quickly incorporated into the production. Then a small team of Davies' boatbuilders will shift to Valencia, Spain to prepare the wings that are in storage there ahead of the Naples event. "The extensions aren't fixed permanently," Murray explains. "We can put them on or take them off, so they'll be used at our discretion for light wind venues to add more power to the boats when we're racing in lower wind ranges." Murray says he expects the wing extensions could be used in up to 15 knots of wind. Manager for Olympic sailing Live Site appointed . . . Weymouth and Portland Borough Council has appointed an experienced events manager for the Live Site for the 2012 Olympic Games sailing events. Roger Woods has been appointed to run the site at Weymouth Beach during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Site will be located at the southern, Pavilion end of Weymouth Beach and will be run every day from July 27 to August 12. Viewers will be able to watch live and recorded Olympic sports, including the sailing events on two huge screens. The site will have a capacity of 15,000 people, meaning access will be closely controlled and monitored for safety reasons. Mr Woods has been involved with several events companies, has put on live music events across the world and site managed the International Festival of the Sea. He has also worked for five years as Production Manager of 'The Park' area at Glastonbury Festival. Full story at http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/story-15040643-detail/story.html Team GBR weaknesses show at Miami . . . The Miami World Cup regatta reached its halfway stage on Wednesday and despite Team GBR sailors holding seven podium positions, old weaknesses are showing. Many top names are missing in Miami and GBR, with a strong team, could be expected to dominate, but in several events they are failing to show an improvement. The women's Laser Radial and the men's 470 sailors are struggling to make their mark. Charlotte Dobson is fifth and Alison Young seventh in the Laser Radial event, while Ben Saxton-Richard Mason are eighth and Luke Patience-Stuart Bithell 14th in the 470 men’s event. And in the 2.4mR Helena Lucas suffered a setback to her challenge for the Olympic berth with an OCS dropping her back to 11th, seven places behind Megan Pascoe.  Elsewhere things are going more to plan. Nick Dempsey won both his races in the RS:X men’s windsurfing fleet, counting all race wins so far, while Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell retain their lead heading into the final two days of racing for the SKUD Paralympic class, despite their worse result of the week. “Elliot and I had a good couple of races today – kind of like training races for the two of us in a way – and it was great to get the conditions we did today,” Dempsey explained. “It was the first time we’ve got planing since we got here, so it gave the body a bit of a rest from the pumping, and it was nice to be going well in those conditions. Rickham and Birrell, the four-time World Champions, continued their bid for a first Miami title with 2, 3 from their two races, edging them into a two point lead after their nearest rivals, Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, could only manage two fourth places. Elsewhere in the Paralympic classes, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas improved one place to second overall in the Sonar class, Paul Goodison is just one point off of the lead in the Laser class following another steady day of 1,3 from his two races, while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, in the 470 women’s event, were overtaken by the Dutch pairing of Westerhof and Berkhout on Wednesday. The Skandia Team GBR duo are in second overall, just one point from the overall lead, with development squad duo Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth in third. The women's match racing is of high quality and Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor have three Group B matches remaining on Thursday in order to book their berth in the quarter-finals. Four quarter-finalists from Group A are known - Sally Barkow USA (11-1), Silja Lehtinen FIN (10-2), Ekaterina Skudina RUS (8-4) and Anna Tunnicliffe USA. The Group B qualifiers will be decided Thursday. “We’ve had a really good couple of weeks training here and the goal is to win a medal,” Macgregor continued. “We’re struggling a little bit at the moment with a couple of things in the boat but nothing that can’t be fixed – it’s just trying to get your head around the racing here. Hopefully we’ll have a good day tomorrow and get into the quarters and be able to start again.” The Rolex Miami OCR – 2011-12 ISAF Sailing World Cup series – runs until Saturday 28 January. Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org Hannah Snellgrove receives Marlow Ropes Award . . . Rising Laser Radial sailor Hannah Snellgrove has received an additional boost to her thriving campaign after she was awarded the coveted Marlow Ropes Award. The Marlow Ropes Award was introduced in 2002 with the aim of rewarding Britain’s most promising young sailors for their determination, focus and talent.  Snellgrove is a current member of Skandia Team GBR Transitional Squad giving her access to an array of world class training resources used by Britain’s Olympic gold medal winning sailors – a real stepping stone to succeeding at the highest level. The 21-year-old from Lymington, Southampton has been in fine form in recent regattas, with her career highlight coming at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, last month, where she finished 14th. Barrie Edgington, Skandia Team GBR Development Squad Manager, commented: “I am sure that the experiences of being part of the 2012 programme will put her in a great position when she is able to commit 100% in the next Olympic cycle. A name to watch for!” Team GBR stack up the points at Miami . . . Tuesday's 8-11 knot breeze on Biscayne Bay allowed three of the Rolex Miami OCR’s 10 Olympic classes to catch up on the races they lost due to dying winds Monday afternoon. In another good day for Team GBR, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, Paul Goodison, and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell maintained the pressure to all lead their respective fleets. 470 World Championship silver medallists Mills and Clark picked up two out of three race wins to keep them in pole position. In the Laser, Olympic Champion Paul Goodison picked up the perfect score line, with two race wins in the blue fleet, while the four-time World Champions Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell hold on to the lead in the Paralympic SKUD class for the second day, with two second places in Tuesday’s races. RS:X windsurfer Nick Dempsey blotted an otherwise perfect score sheet with a premature start in his first race of the day, but bounced straight back with a race win in the second to ensure he’s the man to beat when the discard comes in after the first race Wednesday. Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor started their women’s match racing campaign on Tuesday, with four wins and two losses to start their Group B opening round-robin stage. Mandy Mulder, Annemiek Bekkering and Merel Witteveen (NED) prevailed with 6 wins and 1 loss. In Group A who also completed 11 flights, the leader was Silja Lehtinen, Siljan Kanerva and Mikaela Wulff (FIN) with 8 wins and 1 loss. The Miami OCR is a chance for Team GBR to get some relatively easy world cup points and early season competition. The event is more important for those still trying to qualify for the 2012 Games and GBR 49er, Star and Finn sailors are missing this event to concentrate on upcoming European events. Britain's choice for the men's 470 event, Luke Patience and Sturat Bithell, are struggling to find their form since getting the nod. Yet to hit single figures, they have been out shone by Ben Saxton and Richard Mason who sit in fourth overall after four races. Charlotte Dobson is making her mark in the women's Laser Radial, in second place behind Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands, and comprehensively out pacing her British rival, Alison Young, for the Olympic berth. Young had a better day with a 4, 8 to mix it with Dobson but still carries a disqualification from day 1. In the 2.4mR Megan Pascoe holds the advantage over GBR team mate, Helena Lucas, in third and sixth respectively. Damian Seguin of France is running away with this event, 16 points ahead of Canadian Paul Tingley. Leading the Finn, Zach Railey of the USA could do nothing wrong as he methodically picked off his competition, most notably Caleb Paine (USA) and Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN), to quadruple the victories in his score line. In the 49er Erik Storck and Trevor Moore of the USA are still holding on to a solid first place ahead of the Austrian team of Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch. Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org/ Dutch teenager Laura Dekker completes solo circumnavigation . . . Dutch teenager Laura Dekker has sailed into harbour on the Caribbean island of St Maarten - becoming the youngest sailor to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world. Following a court battle for the right to embark on the challenge, sixteen-year-old Laura Dekker sailed into harbour at Sint Maarten in the Caribbean on Saturday afternoon to complete her round-the-world voyage. She arrived a year and two days after setting out. Dekker has originally planned to set out a year earlier, at the age of 14, but the court ordered her placed in the care of welfare officers on the grounds that she was too young to guarantee her safety at sea. 1,000 nautical mile port tack drag race . . . For the next 1,000 nautical miles, the Volvo Open 70 fleet will predominantly be on port tack in a drag race that is taking the fleet across the southern tip of Sri Lanka and into the Bay of Bengal towards the waypoint at Pulau We and the entrance of the Malacca Strait, nine miles off the northernmost tip of Sumatra. The landmass of Sri Lanka is continuing to produce a slight wind shadow, which has slowed the fleet, but once clear of the island and out across the Bay of Bengal, about 125 miles to east of the fleet, the breeze will pick up and the charge towards the barn door will begin in earnest. There is little in the way of tactics that can be deployed at this stage of the game to gain an edge and the racing continues to be largely a drag race where boat handling and sail choice are the deciding components. However, late this afternoon Mike Sanderson's Team Sanya made a tactical decision to ditch the south, take a hitch to the north, and get back in the mix. Sanderson had little to lose in crossing behind the fleet and clawing his way up for half an hour or so before tacking back onto port. When the fleet hardens up on to the wind again in the approach to Pulau We, the north will be the strong position. “We have a slight speed deficit on the new boats,” explained Sanderson today. His tactic is to stay in touch as best he can before the fleet reaches the Malacca Strait, where he hopes there will be a ‘restart’ of sorts. In fifth place Ian Walker's Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing are struggling to compete, or even to find the elusive fifth gear. According to Walker, the team has tried every possible sail configuration to try to match the performance of those around them, but is just not quite achieving it. It is frustrating for the British skipper although the team is enjoying sparring with overall leader Iker Martínez's Team Telefónica who by 19:00 UTC this evening had rolled over the black boat to take up fourth place. At 22:00 hrs Monday, the order is Puma, Camper, Gropupama and then Abu Dhabi, Sanya and Telefonica,. 14 nm from leader to last boat. Can Tornado return to Olympics? . . . Can the Tornado return to the Olmpics? The one-man tornado known as Roland Gaebler continues to push the multihull Olympic cause. With his Tornado hat on Roland has campaigned tirelessly for the class to return to the Olympic fold, and with the mixed-crew multihull now on the agenda for Rio in 2016, is happy to talk-up the Tornado as the new female-friendly class.  The ISAF Evaluation Trials in Santander 17 to 25 March for the Olympic Mixed Multihull are the next step and Gaebler is happy to welcome one and all to the event. Esecially those poor Star and Matchrace sailors about to suffer withdrawel symptoms from Olympic campaigning - although their bank managers might welcome their return to a more lucrative form of employment. The Tornado is now a transformed class, not only has it rediscovered the one design concept, but has apparently been an unheralded bastion of women's sailing, harking back to Denmark's Paul and Trine Elvstrom who finished 4th at the 1984 Olympic Games. Which does rather emphasise the point that it has always been possible for women to sail the Olympic multihull, just not many have wanted to. Under the guidence of Gaebler the class is also keen to experiment with new courses and has run various short course and speed events in confined space to improve the media opportunities, but as the AC 45 and Extreme 40 classes have demonstrated, spectacular capsizes are the way to YouTube media stardom. But, lets not complain, the multihull is back in the Games. The Tornado might be a bit long in the tooth and despite its classic good looks, considered a bit un-cool in the ISAF drive to shake off its old boy network image. So let's hope that the trials in Santander throw up a real ground breaker, not that previous trials - 49er excepted - raise our expectations. - GN Editor Note: Trine and Paul Elvstrom were European champions in the Tornado class in 1983-84. Paul Elvstrom also won 13 World Championships in seven different monotype sailing classes. Elvstrom is one of only four Olympic athletes to have competed over a 40-year span. Elvstrom won four consecutive individual sailing gold medals in the Finn class event and he competed in the Tornado in the '84 and '88 Games with his daughter Trine. Frantic finish at Quantum Key West 2012 . . . Numbers may be half of what they were, but a stellar list of domestic and international sailors are competing aboard 112 boats at the Key West 2012 sailing regatta that finished on Friday off the Florida Keys. It was a frantic finish at Quantum Key West 2012 as several boats snatched victory with strong performances on the fifth and final day. Barking Mad pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in the 25-year history of the regatta, winning the Farr 40 class despite suffering a dreaded DNF. Barking Mad, skippered by Jim Richardson of Newport, R.I., did not finish Race 2 after a scary man overboard incident. That type of result usually proves fatal in a no-throwout series, but the Barking Mad team kept plugging away — winning three of the final five races to pull out an improbable one-point victory. Skipper John Kilroy and the Samba Pa Ti team held off a stiff challenge from Pisces to capture the talent-laden Melges 32 class. Samba Pa Ti was selected as Quantum Boat of the Week for winning the closest, most competitive class at the 25th anniversary regatta. The 52-foot class was expected to be a bare knuckle brawl with all eight entries filled with fully professional crews. There were two brand new designs in the fleet with Highland Fling XII (Reichel-Pugh) and Interlodge (Botin Partners) both tricked out for the IRC rule. However, it was an older design still configured to the TP52 rule that stole the show as Quantum Racing finished first or second in all 10 races and defeated runner-up Powerplay (Peter Cunningham, Cayman Islands) by a whopping 18 ½ points. Full story at http://www.premiere-racing.com/KW12_releases.htm Coroner records narrative verdict in Sunsail drowning . . . Nottinghamshire coroner Mairin Casey has recorded a narrative verdict in the case of a Nottinghamshire girl who drowned after becoming trapped under a catamaran. Laura Morgan, 11, died when the catamaran she was on capsized in Paleros, Greece, in 2003. The coroner said the reason for her entrapment was unclear at the time and remains so. During the five-day inquest the coroner heard Laura was sailing with two other children when the tragedy occurred at a resort in Vounaki. Rescue staff at the Sunsail holiday resort, told the coroner how they battled to unhook Laura's harness after the boat "inverted". In a statement, Sunsail said: "Laura Morgan's death was an untimely tragedy and this has been a difficult inquest for all parties, particularly the Morgan family. The coroner acknowledged Sunsail took advice from the Royal Yachting Association in all matters relating to sailing activities and facilities." Note: A narrative verdict is a verdict available to coroners in England and Wales following an inquest. In such a verdict the circumstances of a death are recorded without attributing the cause to a named individual. The Pressure of Success . . . Great things are expected of Team GB at the London Olympic Games. With home ground advantage the British public is looking for a shed full of medals, the more golden the better. And for the British sailing team that expectation is doubled. The British 2008 Olympic sailing team was our most successful ever and the 2012 team is tipped for even greater success on home waters.  Manager Stephen Park has set a goal of four medals this summer, but no one is taking that seriously, with six at the last games we have to be looking at eight this time around with the London factor. Sport England's programme to deliver a London 2012 legacy of increased mass participation in sport has been backed by over £260,000,000 in hand outs to the Olympic sports, and sailing has benefitted to the tune of £23 million to make sure that they continue their winning ways this summer. But is the pressure beginning to take its toll? At the world championships in Perth last December the good ship Team GB sprung a few leaks. In the 49er, an event conspicuous for our not actually managing to win a major title for years, our top crew were forced to withdraw following an injury to crewman Ben Rhodes during the first of their opening day races. And with no outstanding performance so far, selection will most likely be delayed to after the worlds in Croatia this May. In the Star class our reigning Olympic and world champions were also out, with a back injury to helmsmen Iain Percy. And then the 'cause celebre', - the disqualification of three time gold medallist, Ben Ainslie after he blew his top at a marauding media boat and who now faces a possible ban from the 2012 Games. Other Team GB selections are struggling to raise their game. RS:X bronze medallist Nick Dempsey was upstaged by young team-mate Elliott Carney at the Perth worlds, finishing 13th. Paul Goodison, Olympic gold medal winner in the Laser was also beaten by his team-mate. Nick Thompson took silver with Goodison finishing fifth . . . Bryony Shaw finished seventh in the women's RS:X after a disjointed series and will hope to get back at the RS:X world champs in Cadiz in March, targeted as a 'peak' regatta for her.  The ISAF world cup series kicks off in Miami on the 23 January and Park must be hoping that the recent team ski camp has refreshed some jaded bodies and minds. Team GB 49er and Star crews will not compete at Miami but all other team members will be there. Following Miami the first European event is in Palma Mallorca, then Hyeres, France, Medemblik in the Netherlands, the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at the Olympic venue in Weymouth and Kieler Woche, Germany in late June. Plus there are a number of European and World championship events before the Games in July/August The problem for Park and the specialist coaches is making sure that the team, who have been on a continuous circuit of events to get selection, do not peak too early and burn-out, but maintain a competitive edge and high fitness level. And that injured team members return to fitness in time to get in sufficiant competitive sailing. 470 helm Heather Mills has commented in her blog about getting the right balance in peaking for only a couple of events. Returning to the UK at the end of December after Perth exhausted (despite a break in Bali) and taking part in a team cross country ski camp in St Moritz, Mills and crew Saskie Clark flew straight out to Miami for the world cup event . . . And the pressure to win was back. - GN Team GB for 2012 Olympic Games : Finn: Ben Ainslie Star: Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson Laser: Paul Goodison Women's 470: Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark Men's 470: Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell Women's Match Racing, Elliott 6m: Lucy Macgregor, Kate Macgregor and Annie Lush Women's RS X : Bryony Shaw Men's RS X : Nick Dempsey 49er: To be decided Laser Radial: To be decided |
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